1933-02-08 — Page 3

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1933.

Art and Drama

NEW YORK THEATRE WEATHER SLUMP.

Good Plays Stated As Reason.

An actress who has just come back from New York states that the theatre there is doing better busi-

BAD LANGUAGE IN PLAY

Increasing Tendency For Vulgarity. WANTED A PRYNNE.

(By Sydney W. Carroll). Playgoers with a genuine regard

ness than it has for some years for the stage, a true respect for its past. The general slump shows not traditions and its dignity, actora the least

of abating. The who love their calling and are an sign cinema has been very badly hit by xlous to uphold its position, mana- it. "But the theatre, then-why is gers with souls above the prostitu- the theatre going ahead when every-tion of their playhouses, must one thing else is still in a bad way?" and all view with regret and con- "Because the theatre has had some corn the present increasing ten- good plays!"

dency in playwrights towards loose-

A musical comedy, "Of Thee Iness of speech and depravity of Sing"--which is more than a expression in stage dialogue.

Good taste and decent behaviour musical comedy, for it is a musical. satire of the existing regime-has erem in some quarters to be viewed run for more than a yent. Mr. as offences shunned by all whol Elmer Rice's latest play, "Counsel wish to make a profit out of plays. At Law," bullon the performance Audiences appear to welcome the of Mr. Paul Muni, the cinema char- grossest breaches of good manners! (and are ready to applaud an witty! acter-actor. is having an

and smart the veriest vulgaritics. whelming successful run. So "Dinner At Eight" (which Mr. Cochran is immediately to produce in London).

over-

A Fashion in Indecency. Youth and Old Age alike upon unclean ver- the English our boards revel in So is

blage, and the days when common play, "Autumn Crocus." This re- port will confirm the impression decency called for control of tongue that a "slump in the theatre" is as well as conduct seem to have usually enough synonymous with a gone for over.

- "lack of good plays."

more

A Balinese study by Mr. Jalus Wentacher, the celebrat- ed German artist, who opens an exhibition at the Hong Kong Hotel to-day.

THE CHINA MAIL.

MALVERN FESTIVAL

PROGRAMME.

400 Years Of English

Drama.

London.

OLD JAPANESE POUCH-PIECES

Exquisite Pieces Becoming Rare.

STORIES IN IVORY. ·

As part of their old-time tradi- tional dress, the men of Japan once wore flat pouches, often of black or gold lacquer, slung from their belts on silken corda. The cord passed through a holo bored in a small round bead called the ofime, and terminated in a fob known as the notzuke. These exquisite bits are now a subject for collectors, be- coming more and more rare as the charm of the kimono style passes.

Most of the bead and fob pieces are carved from solid ivory. Now and then, however, a speelmen is found which has been wrought| from a semiprecious stone, or em- bellished with tigy fragments of gems on an ivory base.

The netzuko, generally figurines, are delicate and mellowed repre- sentations of mythological sub- jects. On ne fob may be seen the Or god Hotai, pompous of brow. Kwaanon, the goi dess of Mercy, ¡with the folds of her gracious robe seeming to move in the wind. Or the three amusing monkeys of the Nikko abrine-who discreetly see,

Craftsman's Triumph.

This Rabelaisian Indulgence is

Sir Barry Jackson has just an- accounted for by some as vitality, the mere outcome of high spirits nounced his programme for this hear and speak no evil.

year's Malvern Festival.

Once

The actress added: "The worse things are generally, the

the and fashionable vigour. For my- back on

But it is the ojime which reveal more he is presenting a spectacle the more ingenious triumph of the people seem to fall theatre for their entertainment."self, I can only deplore the lament of 400 years of English Drama, and It is historically true that the able degradation of brilliant minds, the event, as usual, will take place craftsman. In these he has over- theatres of Paris were never so compelled in this way to make a

cheap laugh and an empty guffaw. during the first three weeks of come not only the obstacle of a packed as during the Terror.

Chicago.

Prynne was a barrister of Lin-

August,

¡small surface, hut that of a spheri- ical medium as well. He has been

&

the

In the seventeenth century a

A little known miracle play, certain William Prynne was de- ANCIENT'S JADE STOPPINGS. prived of hoth his ears in the pil. "The Conversion of St. Paul," to obliged to tell his story with

Jury for making a scandalous at gether with that "ryght pithy design balanced precariously on a little round globe. A single mia- pleasaunt and mery Comedie, tack upon the part played by

take would have destroyed the cir There was no fear of the dentist's Queen Elizabeth and some of her "Gammer Gurton's Needle" will recular rhythm which has been his

present the fiftce- and sixteenth. chair among the ancient Mayas of ladies in a theatrical performance. centuries and be given on the same great limitation and his artistic Central America. They beat nature!

challenge.

On one bead, for example, he has by having cavities drilled in their coln's Inn who hated stage plays evening. The early seventeenth teeth to make room for Jade inlays. and players. He believed them to century will give us Thomas Hey,

wood's melodrama, "The Fair Maid undertaken to carve the optimistic Examples of this 1,280-year-old be sinful, heathenish, lowd, unged of the West" and the Restoration symbol of the bamboo, seeming to vanity were shown at the Fieldly and corrupt, intolerable mis- Museum of Natural History here chiefs to the manners, minds, and period Dryden's "All for Love or cast swaying shadows on

World Well Lost." The cream-coloured ivory base. On an- where curators exhibited their souls of men. He considered the the

the twisted latest collection of ancient Mayan profession of play poets and stage eighteenth century will be omitted other he has portrayed a miniature

(Continued at foot of next Column.)

this year, but as an example of rock garden with

shapes of wee plnes, symbols of pre-Victorian drama, we are

Knowles's have Sheridan

The strength, rearing themselves in Love Chaise," and for the later Buch exact juxtaposition as to set third dimension without nineteenth century Henry Arthur up a Jones's "The Dancing Girl," which breaking the continuity of the was originally staged at the Hay- sphere. Or with the sweat fragile market Theatre forty-one. years pattern of the plum blossom he may have offered a wish, for hap- Į ago.

The modern play to be given has piness in a fabric of dainty sculp not yet been announced, but it is, not unlikely that Mr. Shaw will bring a new plece home with him! from his cruise round the world,

art, industry and teeth-Beuter.

DING! WEDDING!!

Remember whenever you have to send a WEDDING present or a BIRTHDAY present for all occasions you will find what you want at

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MERRY WIDOW AUTHOR BUYS

A CASTLE

Vienna.

ture.

Many Designs. One unusually exquisite bead is fringed all around with the foam of breaking waves the same cas-

B

ending combers which are familiar in Japanese prints. Over another the slinking bodies of several white mice crawl in balanced order, their beady eyes gleaming red with Herr Franz Lehar, the famous bits of superimposed coral. - composer of the "Merry Widow"

The collector may discover and a score of other popular suc yellowed ejime which is graceful casses, has bought the Schikaneder with the fart of fans; another Schloess) in Reiligenstadt, near which is crossed by delicate sprays Vienna, which dates from the. 17th of the beloved cherry bloom; and century.

a third on which a group of Nip The castle has old musical a ponese umbrellas are spread sociations, for it was there that against the rain. Emanuel Schikaneder, wrote the Perhaps, if all the netzuke and text to Mozart's "Magic Flute."-all the ojíme were gathered Reuter.

gether, the whole story of the Old Japan would be set forth on their players and the penning, acting, carven surfaces the story of the and frequenting of stage plays as Japan that is passing,

Infamous and

Christian.

unbecoming to 2

We need a new Prynnu amongst|

his

us to-day. Ho might conceivably Have the same fate and find ears thrown into a basket for his pains, but if he could only succeed in purging our theatres of the current habit of vulgar talk and low expressions he would be rai dering society and the stago itself) a. real service.

Love of Licence. Gone are the days perhaps for

their finest moods as examples to the masses.

www.

2,500 PERFORMERS

FOR LONDON.

Grand Pageant On River Thames.

London,

to-

Famous episodes of the sea will be recalled in one of the largest pageants ever held in the London area, which it is planned to stage.

ever-when the theatre could boat Greenwich, on the Thames on looked to with confidence as the Juce 17, 1986,

There will be 2,600 performers, mirror of good manners and polite demeanour. Banished, too, are the some of whom have already start- times who deportment and polished to rehearse.

The pageant, which is the idea were displayed upon the stage in of Vice-Admiral B. D. Domvils, commander of the Royal Naval Col· Absence of manners to-day de lege, will review paat history from the time of Queen Elizabeth to the {notes the man; absence of morais,

arrival of Nelson's body for burial bespeaks the woman, and how we in Britant. Many of the events revel in the lack of both? What

will be concerned with Britain's great fun it is to be rude and com sea history. One will show how mon!...

the defeat of the Spanish armardı.

Is this love of licence, this aboli tion of reticence, this recklesanesë was planned.

The Lord Mayor of London, Sir

of idiom, just a reaction from an Percy Greenaway, and the Sheriffs carlier restraint, or is it the will travel in state to Greenwich natural excrescence of a nature by water. This will constituto a und directed by revival of the centuries old custom mechanical-gadgets seeking In

of celebrating Thames Functions

surrounded

literary debauchery a relief to the by a water pageant which le daily turnings of a million wheelat

One Matoric episode which Noise, stenchi, fus, uglines cortsin to be shown is Sir Walter fleshliness these are the nerve Raleigh's act of Homage to Queen wracking, wearying, and dominant Elizabeth when throwing down his features of our life today. Por cloak in the mud, so that the Queen hape, in reproducing it, the theatre might walk with unsoiled shoes. can hardly avoid these.

Reuter.

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